Coincidences for us to muse about

Coincidences

If you've been reading this blog, you know I love coincidences.  HERE are ten coincidences that I thought were fascinating.  If you've noticed a coincidence, please share it with us in a comment below.

Added later:  The date that "just happens" to be 3.14 is both the date Einstein was born in 1879 and the date that Stephen Hawking died in 2018, well over a century later.  I'm not sure the words in the illustration make that clear.

A gratitude journal and exercising

Hmm, this is only the fourth time this year I've posted anything about Action for Happiness, which I used to do every month.  But I've been reading each day's suggestions on my iPhone.  They don't match up with what shows up for that day on the monthly calendar.  There are several notices each a day, and people make comments on each of them almost immediately.  Recently, they sent us this:

It's easy to take the good things in life for granted, but research suggests that the more we stop to appreciate what we have, the happier and healthier we are.

Within a minute or two, the very first person to comment said "keeping a daily gratitude journal has improved my life!"  So I told myself I should start keeping track of the things in life that I'm grateful for.  Is it enough to note it mentally, or should I write it in a notebook?  Do any of you keep a gratitude journal?

5-Minute Core Exercises for Seniors: Daily Routines to Build Balance and Boost Confidence ~ by Cindy Brehse and Tami Brehse Dzenitis, 2021, exercise and fitness, 158 pages

This book will help by strengthening your core and boosting your confidence.  Having a strong core can improve mobility, reduce aches and pains, prevent falls, and build everyday confidence.  This book has a collection of 40 individual movements and 25 quick routines for strengthening the major core muscles.

This guide to exercise helps seniors:

• Learn the muscle groups that make up your core, the benefits of keeping them strong, the importance of breathing and stretching, and the latest science behind exercise for seniors.
• Discover a range of seated, standing, on-the-mat, and weighted exercises that mimic everyday movement and don't require any special equipment.
• Find how-tos and illustrations for engaging the right muscles and preventing injury, as well as tips to increase or decrease the intensity of each movement to meet your needs.
• Improve strength, balance, and confidence with this detailed introduction to core exercise for seniors.

This book just arrived on Friday, so I'm learning (and remembering from past classes I've taken) these movements for old folks like me.  The pictures help me see how to stand, sit, and move my arms and legs.  So far, so good.

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz

hosts The Sunday Salon.

Do we live in a simulation?

Question:  Do we live in a simulation?  According to THIS ARTICLE, we do.  Okay, some of you are wondering what I'm talking about, so here's a definition:

sim·u·la·tion /ˌsimyəˈlāSH(ə)n  / noun =  (1) imitation of a situation or process.  Example:  "simulation of blood flowing through arteries and veins."  (2)  the action of pretending; deception.  Example:  "clever simulation that's good enough to trick you."  (3)  "the production of a computer model of something, especially for the purpose of study.  Example:  "The method was tested by computer simulation."

The opinion article that says we do was published on April 1, 2021, with the title "Confirmed!  We Live in a Simulation."  It was written by Fouad Khan.  Here's part of the article, quoted:

Ever since the philosopher Nick Bostrom proposed in the Philosophical Quarterly that the universe and everything in it might be a simulation, there has been intense public speculation and debate about the nature of reality. ... Recent papers have built on the original hypothesis to further refine the statistical bounds of the hypothesis, arguing that the chance that we live in a simulation may be 50–50. ...

The claims have been afforded some credence by repetition by luminaries no less esteemed than Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of Hayden Planetarium and America’s favorite science popularizer. Yet there have been skeptics. ... Why would a conscious, intelligent designer of realities waste so many resources into making our world more complex than it needs to be?

... To understand if we live in a simulation we need to start by looking at the fact that we already have computers running all kinds of simulations for lower level "intelligences" or algorithms. For easy visualization, we can imagie these intelligences as any nonperson characters in any video game that we play, but in essence any algorithm operating on any computing machine would qualify for our thought experiment. ...

Pretty much since the dawn of philosophy we have been asking the question:  Why do we need consciousness?  What purpose does it serve?  Well, the purpose is easy to extrapolate once we concede the simulation hypothesis.  Consciousness is an integrated (combining five senses) subjective interface between the self and the rest of the universe.  The only reasonable explanation for its existence is that it is there to be an "experience."

The simplest explanation for the existence of consciousness is that it is an experience being created, by our bodies, but not for us ... [It is] mostly likely for the benefit of someone experiencing our lives through us. ... All we can do is come to terms with the reality of the simulation and make of it what we can.  Here, on earth.  In this life.

 

Musing

My Monday was going along just fine yesterday, until I realized it was only Sunday.  So I decided to walk to the grocery store for four small items I needed.  I came home with four bags full of stuff.  As I walked, I thought (again) of how walking to the store always seems like I'm walking uphill in both directions.  Which I do, actually.  It's uphill part of the way and then downhill to the store, which means I then walk around the store and walk uphill partway home before going downhill the rest of the way.

Reading

As I was reading A Charm of Goldfinches (see HERE), I was surprised by a word on page 88:  "these phantasmic birds."  Oops, I thought, here's a typo.  I thought the author meant "phantastic" birds.  Then I realized that would be spelled "fantastic."  So I decided to look it up.  Well, I found out it actually IS a word.  So.........

Words of the Day

Phantasmic means something is unreal, illusory, or spectral.  For example, you might describe a creature from a nightmare as phantasmal.  Here are some synonyms for phantasmic:  illusive, apparent, chimeric, deceitful, delusive, dreamlike, fake, fallacious, and fanciful.  The word phantasm comes from the Greek verb phantazein, which means "to present to the mind."  Other words that come from the same root include fanciful and fantasy.

Fantasmic:  Notice the last couple of examples are "f" words:  fanciful and fantasy.  So I looked up "fantasmic" and discovered it has multiple definitions, including:

1. Adjective:  An archaic term that means fantastic or fanciful. 
2. Noun:  An obsolete term that means a fantasy or fancy. 
3. An unbelievably fortunate occurrence.  Example:  "I can't believe I didn't hit that car! That was fantasmic!"

How sociable do you feel these days?

The Social Animal: The Hidden Sources of Love, Character, and Achievement ~ by David Brooks, 2011, psychology, xviii + 427 pages

This is the story of how success happens, told through the lives of one American couple, Harold and Erica — how they grow, push forward, are pulled back, fail, and succeed.  It shows a new understanding of human nature.  The unconscious mind, it turns out, is most of the mind — not a dark, vestigial place but a creative and enchanted one, where most of the brain’s work gets done.  This is the realm of emotions, intuitions, biases, longings, genetic predispositions, personality traits, and social norms:  the realm where character is formed and where our most important life decisions are made.

Drawing on a wealth of research from numerous disciplines, Brooks takes Harold and Erica from infancy to school; from the years that have come to define young adulthood to the high walls of poverty; from the nature of attachment, love, and commitment, to the nature of effective leadership.  He reveals the deeply social aspect of our very minds and exposes the bias in modern culture that overemphasizes rationalism, individualism, and IQ.  Along the way, he demolishes conventional definitions of success while looking toward a culture based on trust and humility.

Word of the Day

so·cia·ble / ˈsōSHəb(ə)l / adjective = willing to talk and engage in activities with other people; friendly.  Example:  "Being a sociable person, I love going out to lunch with a friend or two."

Caturday on Sunday

Have you heard of cats sitting in circles?  Even better, have you actually seen a cat do this?  I was fascinated when I read about it, HERE.  What do you think?

I've found pictures of cat sleeping in a circles, which they do with or without the help of a container (like the cat on the left curled up in).  It shows us just how flexible cats actually are.  This is how Clawdia (and my other cats) would often sleep, though not all the time.

How would you reply to this question:

On Friday, I came up with a weird thought:  If I asked you to think of your childhood, what's the first thing that comes to your mind?  For me, it was my special tree.  I wrote about it in 2012, HERE.  I loved climbing the plum tree in our yard.

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

Beginning ~ with labels

Beginning

We do love to put labels on things, don't we?  Everything from the slightest variaties of tone in a color to the taste of a single flavor in a dish, right through to the tiniest variations in the beats of a song ― they all mark a difference and, no matter how small, every variation has a name.

A Charm of Goldfinches ~ by Matt Sewell, 2017, words, 144 pages

Whether you're an animal lover or a grammar geek, illustrator Matt Sewell has the perfect menagerie of beasts (and beast-related terms) for your reading pleasure.  Along with fifty-five color illustrations, Sewell presents the unexpected collective nouns used to describe groups of animals on land, in the air, and in the water.  Discover the secret behind a "sleuth of bears," keep your eyes open for a "watch of nightingales," and learn something new about a "school of whales."  Illustrated in inimitable watercolor, this book makes a great gift for nature and art lovers.

I will add to the description I found online that it is also a fun book for those of us who love words.  I like that the subtitle is "Quirky Collective Nouns of the Animal Kingdom."

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts

Book Beginnings on Fridays.

A different look at Dr. Seuss books

The Gospel According to Dr. Seuss ~ by James W. Kemp, 2004, stories, 90 pages

The stories of one of the world's most beloved children's authors are both imaginative and entertaining, but a closer look at Dr. Seuss's stories reveals that many are inspirational as well as instructive.  James Kemp has identified as his favorite theologian not Barth or Pannenberg, but the inimitable Dr. Seuss.  Kemp finds parallels between the actions of cats in hats, Grinches, Snitches, Sneetches, and other Creachas and lessons found in Scripture.  As the author shares his enthusiasm for the creativity and wisdom of Dr. Seuss, the meaning and the relevance of many Bible passages come to life.

A word for the wise (or otherwise)

Would you like to see a catastrophe?  I posted one yesterday, HERE.  Okay, so I was playing with words again.  Aren't I always, though?

Sunday Salon is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.